In the United States, millions of dollars are annually allocated for roads and highways to undergo construction and repair. Generally, traffic barrels are used during road construction work to warn and alert drivers of the construction work and presence of construction workers and equipment, redirect traffic in the event of lane and ramp closures, and to protect workers. Traffic barrels are typically placed on the shoulder of the road and later moved out onto the road.
The task of moving the barrels onto the roadway may be accomplished by one or more individuals who walk along the highway and manually carrying and/or dragging each barrel from the shoulder onto the highway. Traffic barrels weigh about 25-30 pounds, so this is a time-consuming task due to the weight of the barrels and the distance that must be traveled. Not only is this method of moving the traffic barrels inefficient in term of man-hours and labor expense, but it is dangerous. Indeed, hundreds of construction workers are killed annually along highways while manually moving traffic barrels.
To alleviate the problem of manually moving traffic barrels by hand, it is known to drive a truck along the highway and have workers on the truck move the barrels. While this manner of moving the barrels is typically safer for the workers and somewhat faster, it still suffers from certain drawbacks. For example, it typically requires multiple workers (up to five) positioned on the truck and passing the barrels from their original location to their desired location. As a result, it still requires a number of construction workers and a substantial amount of time, which decreases the inefficiency of the operation.
Accordingly, there is a need for a more effective system for placement and removal of traffic barrels from highways. The system for placement and removal of traffic barrels from highways should limit the number of workers necessary for the task, result in more quickly placing and removing the traffic barrels and improve safety for the workers assigned to this task. The system should be able to be adjustably and removably mounted to a variety of different vehicles. The system should be further configurable to have removably attachable extensions to aid in moving traffic barrels different distances, i.e., across one or more lanes of traffic.